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Bloodsucker: will become invisible only at a certain distance and will be vulnerable at all times.

Pripyat and NPP will correstpond to their real whereabouts and exploring them will not be limited or corridorish like in CS. Player will have full freedom to explore the territory without any limits!!!

In the story after military's failed attempt to make a safe path to the center, our agent will try make the path by himself and try to track down the 5 crashed helicopters while learning about their fates and stories. Only a handful of Duty and Freedom divisions have survived. They are now more friendly and cooperative with each other. Both now share their divided territories. Duty will sell MG's and rifles, Freedom will sell sniper and ecologist equipment while bandits will sell "bad guns." The Player will try to gain reputation for the factions to gain greater access to their equipment. He won't be able to join any of them though.

The game will revive the old SoC atmosphere, artifact hunting with detectors and weapon upgrades will remain but faction wars won't. Finally sleeping will be introduced in this game! Player will sleep at camps and bases in beds.

The 70 handmade quests will take place on 3 levels. The last bunch will take place on the final level only.

NPC's will have different loot corresponding to their locations. It will be more diverse than money and food. NPC's will have their daily routines. In the morning they'll go artifact hunting, in the evening they'll return home. Monsters though will show greatest activity at night and at dawn.

Not 1/3, but 3 times larger.
But there will be only 3 locations ( Zaton - slumpy area with lots of farm buildings; Jupiter - huge factory and surrounding area; Pripyat - precise copy of real area, but different part of the city than in SoC) + few dungeons.

I especially like that all maps in the CoP are going to be entirely new. Also, no more factions war, helicopter bosses, Call of Duty style levels, anything that's alien to original concept as they wrote. All in all, it looks very promising on paper.

The plot is starting few days after SoC final events - Gunslinger is turning the psy-antennas off, but too, being out of it for few days. In the meantime, all the stalker realized the possibilities and perspectives of the pass opening, rush there. Of course, the way is too thin for all the people, so factional conflicts raise again and all the place began to fill with corpses.

Unexpectedly, the military forces become more active too. News about the psy-emission source liquidation reach military headquarters, and so, the development of "Fairway" operation started. The whole point of it is search for the safe way deep into the Zone for sending heavy-armed troops there and establish full control over the place. But something goes terribly wrong, and all the helicopters sent for reconnaissance vanish.

As said in the old wisdom, probably the one scout can make it where the big group failed. So the HQ send one operative to the place to inquire about facts of the case, while being undercover as a stalker. But, well - why "undercover"? He's actually a stalker, just having an eye on Ministry of Defense pays, so - on the military side. His name is Alexander Degtyarev, and he will be the protagonist.

Our main task will be to find and investigate what happened to those five helicopters. You'll find some info while searching for each of them, and of course in result we'll reveal the inconceivable Mystery. But, of course, the developers won't say anything about it before the release

Alex arrived at the place a bit late - stalkers already settled there, opened the small Bar in the old rusty ship, used some houses around, revealed the nearest anomalies etc.

Only two small groups of Duty and Freedom reached the Backwater, so they concluded a temporal truce and organized a base in the old suiting building. It is divided in two parts - for each faction. Everyone agreed that this will be neutral territory where no one will shoot.

Of course, bandits appeared there too, searching for easy money. One of them, Sultan, smart bastard, started a mess trying to gain control all over the place. But he's not going to kill anyone in sight, so it's possible to work for him.

So, we have 3 factions available for interaction, working etc. It won't be possible to join one of them (because it'll ruin the possibility of visiting lots of places and bring way too much shooting against the aggressive faction stalkers into the game. But you can change the force balance, do various tasks, help faction you sympathize to dominate.

Of course, there won't be any infinite wars for control points! Everything is a lot more interesting. For example: the scientist camp lose mercenary guarding. You can give them an advice like "I know some guys from Freedom, they'll help you, no problem". For faction it'll be the new earning source, and you - will receive respect from faction members, good equipment etc. you need.

Duty members usually prefer the heavy armor assault rifles and machineguns, Freedom - to sniper weapons and light, but protected against the Zone dangers equipment, suiting for those who like to explore the Zone. Developers didn't revealed anything about bandits propensity, but we think it'll be shotguns. And, of course, all the dark side adepts will choose that faction

Weapon assortment will grow a bit. By the way, developers decided to give more attention on smooth-bore weapons, so, for example, you can find and use automatic barreled-magazine shotgun (model prototype is DOA-12). Whole weapon balance will be reworked for higher damage and a lot longer distances.

For players not to suffer while choosing between sniper rifle and machinegun, devs made both two weapon slots universal - for now you can put anything you want into them. Of course, if you want to be armed while using the detector, you'll need one-handed weapon like pistol, but their role on the late stages of the game will probably decrease - everyone will prefer more powerful weapon

Suits will be divided into torso part and helmet part, both with separate stats. There will be 4 quick-use slots for items like bandages, medkits, antirads etc. Also, the new medical item class will appear - boosters. These are the preparations allowing the user to temporary raise some organism functions - for example, some of them will allow to sprint longer, some will speed up the blood coagulability, and so on.

Blowout can happed anytime, so you'd better keep in mind the ways to closest hideouts. You'll have about a minute to hide, and, which is most interesting, the hideout can be already taken by aggressive stalkers. Of, for example, you could the the members of Duty and Freedom in gunfight for the hideout. It's possible to help one of the sides, or just wait and collect the loot later.

Stalkers will act with the correct day/night behavior cycle - at night they're mostly sleeping, in the morning they wake up, prepare the equipment and leave the camp to search for artifacts - individually or as groups. As evening comes, they'll start to return to the camp with loot (or without it). Developers are going to rework the behavior and trade system, so you won't see the 5000 rubles and vodka in the backpacks of stalkers - they'll carry what they actually bought or collected. It allows some interesting schemes for dark side adepts - for example, you can wait for stalker to collect the artifacts and kill him returning to the camp to get your hands over the loot

Monsters will raise their activity at night. By the way, yes - there will be burer and chimera. Those models were already been in SoC recourses, but wasn't used in game due to various reasons. Developers said that they wanted unique enemies, so another dog-like close combat mutant is not needed. So, in sequel, they gave burer and chimera unique abilities and behavior. Chimera will use swift and deadly leaps from the dark while staying unnoticed and stealthed, try to avoid player to see it before the attack. Burer will widely use his telekinetic abilities - for example, for disarming characters. Or at least to make concrete block fall on your head

The stats balance for other monsters will be reworked. For example, bloodsucker will be a bit weaker, but more dangerous, his invisibility won't make him immortal, he will act slightly different.

The attention to details in Call of Pripyat is really surprising. For example, after the blowout anomalies will change their position and the artifacts will appear in completely different places, making almost impossible to memorize the safe route and run without detector like in Shadow of Chernobyl. By the way, it'll be possible to sleep! You won't be able to sleep under the bush within the bag, but on every base you'll find the suiting places to sleep at night. Much better than waiting for the morning in SoC while having time for a tea. Ten cups of tea. Or even more.

But, well, maybe you won't want to sleep at night. There are a lot tactical possibilities and, also - many quests are available only at night

There will be about 70 new unique quests. Small corridor-like locations are in past - prepare to explore three giantic territories:

- Darkwater - marshy territory, heavy affected with anomalies and densely built with various agricultural structures.

- "Jupiter" - industrial territory around and in the huge abandoned factory (by the way, the "Jupiter exists in the real Desolation Zone | translator note).

- Pripyat - 100% precise recreation of east Pripyat part, with central post office, school and other famous places. By the way, the city will be properly placed on the global map - north-west from NPP, not south, as in the previous games. The most important is that this level won't be corridor-like as Limansk in CS or Pripyat in SoC - no, it'll be huge territory with lots of various quests and non-linear exploring possibilities.

To say straight, Call of Pripyat looks like the wise and massive work on mistakes done in previous games. There won't be helicopter bosses, infinite faction wars and other elements that are theoretically interesting, but doesn't fit to S.T.A.L.K.E.R at all. Well-turned features like new detection system or weapon upgrading will be there too, but in overall look the Call of Pripyat is closer to the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R concept with dangerous, desolated and silent Zone where stalkers are rare and gloomy loners, where's no place for huge groups and tons of gunfights. We really hope that the developers will follow this line, because this time they've chosen really proper vector.

We're looking forward for the meeting with the dark and cloudy world of eternal autumn where it's not possible to live, but... where you still want to return. Again and again.

Wow, even Koki appears to be enthusiastic to this. I guess I'll be the sceptic from now on.

Can GSC really pull that off? It sounds just too good to be true... Also, why are they dropping the nickname basis? "Alexander Degtyarev" is a rather plain name compared to Strelok, Marked One and even Scar.

As for pulling it out - nothing in it seems impossible to do; quite the contrary, modders did most of these features ages ago. The only question is whether the engine can handle such humongous maps, but I assume they wouldn't be boasting about it if they didn't know if it will work.

As for pulling it out - nothing in it seems impossible to do; quite the contrary, modders did most of these features ages ago.

Well, I thought you've lost faith in GSC ability to hold to their promises long ago.

That said, maybe they chose to put in only five maps (albeit large ones) so they could better focus on gameplay issues. Actually, it would be nice if CoP ends up being the first STALKER game to not require any major mod in order to be fully enjoyable. Again, the game's scheduled for Fall release, so yeah...

But hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Originally Posted by steo

This does sound awesome. And though I would also prefer a name like marked one, being named after a machine gun isn't all bad, I suppose.

Well, I thought you've lost faith in GSC ability to hold to their promises long ago.

I never really considered SoC full of broken promises(At least it's nowhere near Bioshock). I mean, technically everything is there: Zone, Stalkers, Mutants, Anomalies, Artifacts, Pripyat, Chernobyl, etc. The features were delivered, just in the simpliest, most stupid and unimaginative way possible. That's why I consider SoC the biggest waste of the best idea I've ever heard in videogame history.

Then there was Clear Sky which promised the faction war and did deliver the faction war, and it was pretty well done and it would be a blast to have it in any FPS... but STALKER.

Very promising news, and the more they rip off AMK the better, just means there's less to mod in after; though it wouldn't kill them to hushedly mention that some of the community's ideas served as inspiration at some point.

My main concern with CoP right now is the A-life. Clear Sky had pratically none, apart from the occasional stalker raids, which is a shame, considering that the game itself is a major improvement over SoC on many aspects.

With an actually active A-life, it would have totally rocked. But right now, it plays like the bastard child of Call of Duty and Bioschucks, with all the items, NPCs and mutants conveniently popping out of nowhere as soon as you trigger a new quest or event.

exactly ! that's why I hope they can make it happen this time. of course when I played AMK for a long time I had some but there were no mad dashes by 2 squads to get there only to find themselves blocking each others entry and having to duke it out. it could also be cool to see them resolving it with money or goods
like, ok, hideout is neutral territory but the first to step out of it gets a bullet in the back of his head.

The firefights for hideouts never worked in AMK because there were too many hideouts. Wonder if GSC will figure that one out.

In CS, NPCs seem to just vanish whenever a blowout is taking place. Maybe GSC will just go for that once again. OL mod couldn't figure that one out as well, so it had the Stalkers falling on the ground for the duration of the blowout.

But to be fair, faction wars in CS could have been a good solution. Instead of having to capture random "strategic" points, the factions would have had to take control of hideouts.

Anyway, more info on how the unique quests are going ot work, thanks to BAC9-FLCL from GSC forums :

Almost every quest is separate unique story. For example, one stalker asked for help with his case: he tried to leave the place on his car (old Zaporozhets), but rushed into anomaly on the road nearby. Car fell into a crack (probably a place depicted on the screen).

He gives us a simple task - to take valuable items from the car's trunk. Sounds quite easy. We go there, jump down, take items stalker requested and... suddenly realize that there's no way to get out above

After exploring the crack, we find the burrow in one of the walls, probably did by some mutants. We look there and see their lair. There's a light from the exit, but the way to it lies through the cave full of dangerous creatures. So, what to do? Try to ran through the cave, take out your weapon or... wait for night for mutants to leave for hunting?

GSC Game World is glad to announce a new project in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series – S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (working title) for PC.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat will become a third stand-alone game in the highly-acclaimed Survival FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The project is slanted for release in autumn 2009.

The events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat unfold shortly after the end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Having discovered about the open path to the Zone center, the government decides to hold a large-scale military "Fairway" operation aimed to take the CNPP under control.

According to the operation's plan, the first military group is to conduct an air scouting of the territory to map out the detailed layouts of anomalous fields location. Thereafter, making use of the maps, the main military forces are to be dispatched.

Despite thorough preparations, the operation fails. Most of the avant-garde helicopters crash. In order to collect information on reasons behind the operation failure, Ukraine's Security Service send their agent into the Zone center. From now on everything depends on the player.

Key game features:

* Photorealistic exclusion Zone – Pripyat town, Yanov railway station, Jupiter factory, Kopachi village and more, recreated by their true-to-life prototypes.
* New story, a number of unique characters.
* Extended system of side quests.
* New monsters: Chimera and Burer. New behaviour and abilities for all monsters.
* New A-Life system, created using the players' best-liked elements of the first two games in series.
* Emissions considerably influence the world of the Zone.
* Sleep function added into the game.
* New player’s interface.
* Possibility to continue the game after completion in a freeplay mode.
* The game is developed on X-Ray engine v.1.6

But the conservative ones were okay? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant_garde
That said, I do respect your translation work... English isn't an easy language by any means :P. (Especially when we start using other languages' words...)

Looking forward to the freeplay mode, as long as the world is a little more dynamic than that of SoC (but it sounds like CS went a little too far in that regard...?).